Category: Self-Improvement

Posted on

Saving money by buying whole chickens

I’m on rather an economy drive lately, but I like to eat well.

I’ve discovered a way to save a whole bunch of money on meat.  In my area, a boneless, skinless chicken breast runs over three bucks a pound when not on sale.  Even on sale you’ll never see it for less than about $1.99/lb.

I can pretty much count on one of the area grocery stores having a sale on whole chickens for between $0.89 and $0.99/lb most weeks.  Now, you might say that you get sick of a whole roast chicken all the time, and fair enough.  Sure, I do the thing where I roast a chicken, save some of the leftover meat for chicken salad, then make Garbage Soup out of what’s left every now and then, but it’s not all you can do with a whole chicken.

One thing I’d never done was cut up a whole chicken into its various parts.  If I was going to use the parts, I bought the chicken cut up.  Noticing how much cheaper the whole chicken often is, I decided I needed to learn to cut up my own.

I tried it yesterday, just because, well, I like learning new things.[1] I watched a video on Youtube about it, then on my very first try it took me something fewer than five minutes.  It might not be as cool or as pretty as a professional can do it, but it’s a large enough money savings, I’m all good doing this.  Yeah, it’s a little yucky, but I feel like if I’m willing to eat meat at all, I need to suck it up on the yucky anyway and get real that I’m eating an animal.

Now, not everything I make uses chicken with bones in.  In fact, a lot of it doesn’t.  Next time I find a good sale on chickens, I’m going to learn to debone the chicken.  I’ve been given to understand it’s fairly quick and easy.  I think Elliot Yan claims to be able to do it in 18 seconds, so I’m sure I can do it in a couple of minutes.  The next time I buy a chicken, I’ll debone it and possibly even portion it out already cut up for stir fries.[2]

I’ve seen people talk about the waste involved.  We don’t eat the bones! Who eats the wings?

No we don’t eat the bones, but I cook with chicken stock a whole bunch, and not just soups.   Rice made with chicken stock is delicious.  Beans and rice, jambalaya and many other dishes that use water have a richer flaver, and are more nutritious[3] with the stock anyway.  Bones and chicken backs make fine, tasty stock.  So, no, it’s not wasted.  I just save them in a bag in the freezer for the next time I’m going to make stock.

As far as the wings?  Don’t you ever have parties?  Buffalo wings, and variations thereof are pretty popular ‘round here.  I’m saving mine for the next party I throw.

It does take some time to cut up and repackage a whole chicken, but it doesn’t take that much and it’s not even hard.  If you’re looking for a way to save money on meat, I have to encourage you to give this a try.

[1] And next week, it might be a new programming language.  C’mon guys, I wasn’t kidding when I said it was my job to learn stuff then talk about it.

 

[2] Which will make my son happy for the nights he cooks.  He detests cutting up chicken.

[3] If you’re worried about calcium intake and are not big on dairy, this is another great way to get your calcium. When you make homemade stock, it leeches from the bones.

Posted on

For the last time, introversion is not shyness!

I read a piece on introversion lately that was mostly kind of cool, but one line made me want to explode.  It dealt with karaoke and why an introvert doesn’t want to get up and perform karaoke.  Something to do with being terrified of getting up in front of the public and performing, if I recall correctly.

Friends, this is no more a hallmark of introversion than is blue eyes.

Being an introvert is not about being scared of being in the public eye.  In fact, being afraid of public speaking is an incredibly common fear that runs across the introvert/extrovert lines and has more to do with being a human being than it does with one’s mental orientation.

What’s actually a pretty common pattern is for an introvert to be a pretty accomplished public speaker, but find that she detests noisy parties.  Being an introvert isn’t about being scared.  It’s about being drained by too much interpersonal contact.

The introversion=shyness thing tends to get to rub me the wrong way.  I think partially because there is an underlying implication that the introversion needs to be cured, but also because if someone doesn’t know me well, they’ll deny I’m an introvert and interpret my behavior from an extroverted frame of reference.

Ferinstance, if someone sees that because I am not shy that I am an extrovert, but only want to socialize with them on a limited or irregular basis, they’ll interpret that as me not liking them very much, but don’t want to say so.  If they were to see me as the introvert that I am, they recognize that I just need to be alone a whole bunch and it has nothing at all to do with my fondness or not for them as people.

I remember once teaching a class and mentioning being an introvert.  I forget why it was brought up, but since I was teaching, I was probably looking for an illustrative example of something.  One of the class members immediately said, “But you’re not shy![1]”[2]

No, I’m not.  I even enjoy public speaking.

For the last time, fear of being in the spotlight is not an introversion/extroversion thing.  It’s a not-too-unusual people thing.  ‘Kay?

[1] Nancybuttons sells a button I really should buy.  “I’m not shy.  I’m studying my prey.”

[2] I am a very animated public speaker.

Posted on

Good Days

Ordinarily, I either swim right when I get up, then have breakfast, or have breakfast, then go for a swim. What I don’t ordinarily do is get up, work for a couple of hours, swim on an empty stomach, then eat.  But if you want very ordinary food to taste delicious, try it.  Makes oatmeal taste like filet mignon.

I really had to push in the pool today.  I swam after my shift, which means I have about 50 minutes to get my mile in before I get kicked out of the pool for the aquafitness class.

Now by swimmer’s standards, taking 50 minutes to put in an 1800 is sllooowww.   If you can’t do a mile in less than 40 minutes, many triathlons will discourage you from competing[1].

However, since my only real goal is to challenge myself a bit and get my body moving, that doesn’t matter so much.  However, I’m sure to get faster by the end of the summer just because my body will get used to it, and I’ll have to push a bit to get my heart rate up.

I treated myself to a short soak in the hot tub afterwards as well as a long, hot shower.   So, I’m feeling pretty mellow at the moment.

And now, to write.  Working on finishing up one book, starting an outline for another, and writing a few articles.  Swimming and writing makes the day good.

[1] This is usually a water safety issue.  Swimming against the tide is no damn joke, and if you can’t do a 40 minute mile, there’s no way in hell you’re strong enough to be in serious open water.

Posted on

Swimmin' and Body Image

I’ve been slow getting off the mark with my 50 mile challenge.  But I swam a mile today, gosh darn it!  It took 50 minutes, which surprised me, as I was sure it’d be a least an hour[1].

Last year when I was talking to a friend about the 50 mile challenge and asking her if she was going to do it, she commented, “I couldn’t do that.  I’d lose count.”

I didn’t try to convince her, as I think the real reason she wasn’t doing it was a much more valid one.  She didn’t want to.  But I got to thinking about keeping count.

My pool counts a mile as 1800 yards[2].  That’s 72 lengths of a 25 yard pool, my friends, and is going to take between 40 minutes and an hour for the average lap swimmer to complete.  If you’re counting down by lap, not only are you going to lose count, you’ll probably get bored.

I don’t just hop in the pool and start counting down from 72 doing freestyle.  Forget losing count.  That would be daunting[3].

What I do is sets of laps[4].

1 X 50 Freestyle, backstroke and breastroke                        150 yards

1 X 100 Freestyle, backstroke and breaststroke                  300 yards

1 X 50 Freestyle, backstroke and breaststroke                    150 yards

1 X 200 Freestyle, backstroke and breaststroke                  600 yards

1 X 50 Freestyle, backstroke and breaststroke                    150 yards

1 X 100 Freestyle, backstroke and breaststroke                  300 yards

1 X 50 Freestyle, backstroke and breaststroke                    150 yards

Total Swim:                                                                                         1800 yards

What this really means is that I never count higher than eight, what with 200 yards being 8 lengths.  But it is also a lot easier to face.  By the time I’ve warmed up with the shorter sets, 200 yards of a stroke isn’t particularly intimidating.

I also had a funny thing happen in the locker room today.  Like many women in the gym, especially ones with really long hair who need to dry it, I walk from the showers to the lockers with my hair twisted in a towel, but otherwise am not wearing anything.

It really quiet, only another woman and I.  She was swathed in a towel and dressing under it.  She commented that she admired my confidence about walking naked to the lockers.  She sounded really kind of sad and wistful.

I turn around as I’m putting on my underwear.  She’s about 5’7”, and maybe a size 8.  Had I seen her first, I would have suspected condescension.  But the vocal tone combined with the careful draping of the towel made it clear enough.

I made a joke of it and asked if she had kids.  When she said no, I commented, “Eh, well, giving birth will blow away any body modesty.”

The thing is, that she felt badly about her body was hurting her.  I think it was a bit of a shock to her that the body modification you can achieve in a gym wasn’t necessarily going to cure it.  Don’t get me wrong. I’m all for working out and all that smack.   Obviously, what wit me being there and all.  But I’m not there to make myself acceptable to what I think outside perception is.  I wish I could have thought of something to say that would have helped her.  I wish I’d commented that her body is fine the way it is.  I wish I’d commented that you don’t have to fit a physical mold to earn the right to live.

I just hope my example said something to her, as the pain she clearly felt really bothered me.

[1] Note to competitive swimmers:  I know, I’m slow.  Go laugh at me somewhere else.
[2] Yes, a real mile is 1780 yards, but that’s not divisible by 25 yards – the length of the pool.
[3] And courting a rotator cuff injury
[4] This will look familiar to competitive swimmers, though a bit of a light workout.

Posted on

The 50 Mile Club

The gym is doing its usual summer 50 Mile Club.  You try to swim 50 miles between May 1 and August 31.  It’s a fairly challenging workout program, but I usually sign up.  (This translates to about a 1,500 yard swim every week day, so is no slouch of a workout)

This year, I need to get ear plugs, though.  I got some serious water in my ear last year that just wasn’t going away and messed with my hearing pretty badly.  I should probably break down and get new goggles, too.  Almost three years on a pair of goggles is not bad at all.  My latex cap and my bathing suit are both just fine, however.   The suit won’t be fine at the end of this summer, but that’s okay.

This is also going to mean I’m going to have to get into the gym a little earlier on days my family comes in with me.  Hopefully they won’t want to strangle me for this *grin*.

I wish I could find some decent waterproof earbuds, though.  60 lengths of the pool every weekday can get a wee bit tedious with no music or books to listen to.  I own a waterproof box for my iPod, but I’ve never found a pair of ear buds that could stand up to a serious swim.  Prolly why I never see such things in the pool.  It’s not like most of the gym patrons can’t afford ’em.

I’m also going to throw in some weights at home just to make sure I’m getting the bone-building stuff.  That’s the one area where swimming is weak.  It’s not a weight bearing exercise in any way, even if it is pretty good for strength.   But if I’m swimming 45 minutes or so every day, damn’f I’ll hit the gym for a weight training session, too!

Do you find the occasional physical challenge fun?  If you like them, what do you like to do?

Posted on

Sir-Mix-a-Lot Musings

Sore today, most specifically mah butt.

Laugh all you want.  When you do Stiff-Legged Deadlifts with proper form, it works da bootay, which is more or less why I do them.

Believe it or not, this is not a vanity thing.  Women, listen up.  A significant discrepancy between your quad strength[1] and hamstring strength[2] can have a destabilizing effect on knee strength putting you at risk for knee injuries, such as an ACL[3] rupture[4].  This strength discrepancy is a bit more common in women.

Now, I don’t know that my own ACL injury was in any way exacerbated by a strength incompatibility.  I expect in my case it was considerably more of a Rule One issue.  If you’re 35, short and around 200 lbs, it might be that a flying side kick is not the best activity choice for knee health.  Just sayin’.

But be that as it may, if you’re considering strength building work, don’t neglect the butt[5].

[1] That’s the muscles in the front of the thighs.

[2] That’s the muscles in the butt to the knee.

[3] Anterior Cruciate Ligament.  It’s a twisty little ligament in the front of the knee that’s critical to knee stability.  You CAN rupture it and then compensate by working out to strengthen the muscles to stabilize, or you can get the surgery.  I’m not an athlete and could have gotten away with not getting the surgery, but I’m here to say I’m glad I did.

[4] B.-O. Lim, Y. S. Lee, J. G. Kim, K. O. An, J. Yoo, and Y. H. Kwon. Effects of Sports Injury Prevention Training on the Biomechanical Risk Factors of Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injury in High School Female Basketball Players. Am J Sports Med. September 1, 2009 37:1728-1734.

[5] Admirers of the female rear, you may give me tokens of gratitude for this wisdom in the form of chocolate, flowers, books, or very good vodka.

Posted on

Water Workouts

Normally when I do my swim, I’m fixated on getting a certain yardage in.  Today I tossed that and went for time rather than distance.  You see, I have a bad habit of swimming mostly with my arms, kicking mostly for balance and not getting the propulsion I could if I used my kicks properly.

So, I did some kickboard drills for the first time in at least 30 years and am beginning to see why the woman who passed me on my lifeguard cert all those many moons ago made me promise I’d work on my legs.   No wonder I am such a slow swimmer!

Do I really need to bother with this, what with being a lap swimmer rather than a competitive swimmer?  Well, no, not really.   All I’m really worried about at the end of the day is challenging myself a bit physically and getting an endorphin fix so I’m as mild-mannered as a little lamb.

On the other hand, there’s no harm in drilling to become a more balanced swimmer and getting the benefits of a proper full-body workout.  I do get my heart rate up kicking!

There were several aqua-joggers in the pool today — from a woman recovering from a marathon last weekend to a woman stubbornly resisting having to use a cane due to arthritis.   I find the range of fitness levels in the pool and the different fitness goals incredibly comforting.   To me, it’s cool what you can get out of a water workout.

I’m wondering, though, if anyone else does something that’s as flexible as water workouts on dry land, and how do you like them?

Posted on

Secret Gym Initiation

I lifted weights for about eighteen months before I got up the guts to step into the free weight room.  I had been reading a lot on the Internet with posts of people (mostly men) sneering at women whose bodies did not meet their criteria.  I was afraid of being mistreated or people acting like I didn’t belong there.

I was thinking about that this morning when I was lifting.  I was having a hard time with something, and was offered help.  Now, I work at the gym in the mornings, so I knew every one of the guys up there in the free weight room.  I like ’em.  They’re decent people.

The thing is, these people were plenty nice to me long before I worked at the gym.  (I went there for about a year before I got to cheap to pay for a membership and started working there instead).

I say this because if you like lifting or are interested in trying it out, don’t let fear of not belonging  stop you.  I’m even going to get myself in trouble and give you the Secret Gym Rat Initiation to the Cool Kids Club:

  1. Go to a gym.
  2. Go into the weight room.
  3. Pick up something that feels kinda heavy to you.
  4. Put it down.
  5. Pick it up again until you feel a little tired.

That’s it.  You’re done.  You belong and are One of Us.

Posted on

The Big, Dumb Beast

I came pretty close to blowing off my lifting this morning.  Rather, I started telling myself that I would justs go home and lift with dumbbells “later”.  I had opened the gym, was feeling sick of being there, but I had my workout clothes with me.

Now, in Noël’s World, “later” generally doesn’t happen.  When I give myself an excuse like this, chances are very good I’m trying to wiggle out of whatever is going on.   When I realized what I was doing, I just told myself, “For pity’s sake!  Just go lift and shower.  You’ll still get home quite early in the morning in time to get your other work done.  If you blow it off,  you’ll be blowing things off all day in procrastination.”

I try very hard to optimize my life so that it’ll be easier and make more sense to do the productive thing.  You know, like packing one’s gym bag the night before, setting up the crock pot to cook dinner and having housework routines.  I don’t how much time it saves in the real world, but it does save mental effort and Stuff Gets Done.

The author of The No-S Diet, Reinhard Engels, likens habit to a large and powerful beast that you can domesticate and use the energy to suit your purposes.  I think this is true.  ‘Course bad habits are as powerful and dumb as the good ones!

How do you replace a bad habit with a good one, or get rid of a bad habit?

Posted on

Steroids, Swimming and Solar Power

I have felt just chilled to the bone lately.  No, it’s not especially cold outside.  In fact, it’s a balmy 40F outside right now.  It’s the damp, and I know it.

Damp, raw chill is probably my least favorite weather.  Even the swimming pool felt really cold to me before I began my laps today, and they keep that pool pretty warm – usually around 75F.  I usually stay pretty warm for several hours after a good workout, but not today.

I’m working snuggled under my slanket today with a rice-filled warmer at my feet and drinking a hot cup of tea.   Tea is more warming to me than coffee.  I’m not sure why.

I saw an interesting question the other day about swimming.  “Will swimming make my shoulders  broad?”

Interesting question.  The real answer is that yes swimming will most certainly aid in shoulder development.  Whether or not you find that desirable is your call.  I will point out that you’re not going to look like a member of the East German 1970s women’s swim team without two things A) Steroids and B) Their training schedule.  Good luck with that.  Me? If I put in three miles of laps in a week, I’m all good.

Which, in this rambling post, brings up another point about steroid use.  While not in favor of chemical performance enhancers, meeself, I sometimes think people have a rather unclear idea of how these things work.  No-one takes steroids then sits on their butt playing video games and expects to win athletic contests.  It’s the drugs and incredibly grueling workouts that do it.  It’s not a magic pill (or shot).

And in the interests of even more rambling, I’m noticing I really do respond well to playing video games that feature bright, sunny weather with blue water and sand.  I have not wanted to hibernate nearly as badly as I often do on gray, wet days when I spend my coffee break on WuHu Island.  I think that surrounding myself with sunny, tropical images is probably a positive thing.   I sometimes wonder if Nanny constantly burning things on icky days was a similar thing.  I think I get my solar-powered tendencies from her.  We might love water, but it’s the combination of water and sun that’s the thing.  The only time I’d want to visit the far North or the far South would be sometime around the Summer solstice, I think.   I’m hoping for more sunshine than this spring.  Last year’s spring and summer were reminiscent of that Bradbury story “All Summer in a Day” and I think another one like it will send me buggy.

And speaking of coffee breaks, mine is over and I need to get back to work.